Comparison of condylar between healthy and Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis patients

Aim: Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) is a group of inflammatory joint diseases of unknown etiology, with onset before the age of 16, lasting more than 6 weeks. There are several signs and symptoms on the mandibular level including lesions of the temporomandibular joint and in particular lesions of the condyle. The aim of this retrospective study is to evaluate the media-lateral, anterior-posterior diameters of the condyles in patients with JIA by analysing the patients' CBCT and comparing the same values with those found in healthy patients. Methods: the retrospective analysis was conducted on 100 patients in the Orthodontics department of Ospedale Maggio-re Policlinico IRCCS Ca' Granda, Milan. From the initial sample, the final group consisted of 90 patients, 60 with JIA (45 females and 15 males) and 30 healthy {20 females and 10 ma-les). The age of the patients ranged from 3-16 years. Each patient underwent CBCT for skull analysis. Results: of the patients with JIA, 42 had the bilateral form while 18 had the unilateral form. It was found that in pathological condyles the medio-lateral diameter was about 1.5 mm smaller than in healthy condyles with p value < 0.0001 and also the anterior-posterior diameter was smaller but with a no significant p value. We also found that the healthy condyles of patients with JIA were slightly smaller than those of healthy patients, but with no significant p value. Finally, it was highlighted that both in pathological males and females the condylar growth tends to stop earlier than in healthy ones. Conclusions the medio-lateral diameter is affected with greater intensity than the anterior-posterior one, causing a typical condylar shape. Furthermore, it has been shown that the pathology, in the case of unilateral JIA, does not affect only the pathological condyle, but also the corresponding condyle which would seem healthy is partially compromised. In addition, it has been observed that the growth of diseased condyles tends to stop earlier than the condyles of healthy patients.